From June to Sep, the price nearly tripled without any significant fundamental news(unless i missed something).Then pirate defaulted and there was a spike down to $7+, which was readily absorbed and price has slowly creeped back up to where it is now(14+).

Yes, i know Wordpress started accepting BTC recently and Bitcoin is going to be gaining exposure at CES. More businesses are accepting bitcoin, all well and good.But a 300% gain(all before Wordpress and CES news) just smells fishy to me.

What i think:A 300% price gain in 3+ months without any significant fundamental reason is the work of 1 large buyer. 1) Maybe this buyer heard of bitcoin, did his research and believes in it as much as we do and is trying to scoop them up while they are still a bargain and is in this for the long haul.2) This large buyer is here to make a quick 200-300% gain. Ever since price has risen to 12+, all the buy orders that were $5 and below have slowly crept up into the $12+ range.If you look below 12.90 in the market depth table, there is very little liquidity to hold the price. It's almost as if the the large buyer has suckered everyone into buying at $13+ and is slowly letting his coins go whilst keeping 1-2 big orders below market price to give the illussion that there is very strong demand.

Personally i was thinking it was scenario 1, but after watching the PA and the market depth today, its starting to look like the chances of it being scenario 2 is not remote. Also a rich banker or fund investor is unlikely to have the technical background to understand the details of Bitcoin and appreciate the genius of it's design or believe in it's security.

The only reason for it is that the more and more ppl getting into bitcoin. Just see how many new users blockchain.info is getting: https://blockchain.info/charts/my-wallet-n-users Bitcoin subreddit is constantly getting more and more subscribers.

The only reason for it is that the more and more ppl getting into bitcoin. Just see how many new users blockchain.info is getting: https://blockchain.info/charts/my-wallet-n-users Bitcoin subreddit is constantly getting more and more subscribers.

Also don't foget that amount of fiat money is practically infinite.

+1

I believe the recent media attention and the growth in user base supports this price increase and we'll continue to see it climb in 2013. I am concerned about the effect that ASIC delivery or ASIC failure will have on the market.

Interesting, if you don't want to give exact figures, how large is OTC trade in percent of Gox volume in your opinion?

I would have no idea how to extrapolate those figure however FastCash4Bitcoins has moved over 200,000 btc and counting and the other side of there business Bitcoinsdirect is often out of coin. So there is not insignificant volume there.

If I had to guess I would say at least 5000 coins move in any given week on bitcoin-otc

Why is there always this urge to attribute price movements to "one large buyer" or "the manipulator" etc?

I feel like there is a psychological need to attribute things to single people... maybe this is why so many believe in god, and in a king or president to control things?

Because the volume and market cap could certainly allow a single large buyer or a consortium of sophisticated traders, to manipulate the btc market very easily.

Even worse, its a schizophrenic manipulator who does stuff like BUY 10k BTC to raise the price up to 14.31 and about an hour or so later sells it down below 14! And then buys little bits back up to 14.20...

Actually the HUGE buy and then HUGE sell came within two or so minutes of each other. So yeah, the 'manipulator' may have needed to buy a bunch of btc just so he could use it to push the price down, and didn't care about the trading fee.

This might be some kind of tactics, to "test" the price level … probably in the past this trick worked a few times, then you can profit. But right now I don't see it. Also, no weekend-dip, afai-can-see.

I think the spike of new users the Blockchain.info wallet has gotten since December hasn't shown it's full impact yet. Bitcoin has a steep learning curve so I think people will typically trust it only after a few months of experimenting with it. Once these new users start moving bigger amounts it will put a firm support under the price IMO.

As it is even harder to speculate on the intent of a possible speculator, Best pratice is to hedge in a ratio that you feel comfortable with. You know you struck a balance when you feel equally bad about your asks and your bids.